Inspire Truth: NYE at the PAM

A one-of-a-kind New Year’s experience at the Portland Art Museum.

Desert Dwellers with live art by Lynzee Lynx and Flora Bowley. Photo by Rachael Rice

Inspire Truth is not just another intoxicant-fueled blowout into the New Year. It is a skillfully crafted container, where every element of the event is taken into consideration by the staff and production crew to create a magical, breathtaking safe haven for those longing for a more meaningful transition into the turning year.

Inspire Truth embodies a glimpse into the hopes of what the New Year and the future of the human race as a whole could be. Courteous awareness and compassion for others, a grounded and thriving community, more focus and gratitude towards the planet and mother nature, which provides so much for each living creature. A family of humans who truly care for one another, who take pride in making a difference in the world, through every breath that they take, each struggle that they overcome, and through every interaction with other living beings—no matter how small or brief they may be. Ecstatic dance parties with psychedelic soul brothers and awe-inspiring warrior princess sisters. Ominous moments of silence gifted to prayer. Gazing into another’s eyes and recognizing yourself in them and through them, and in turn, recognizing the interconnectedness of all living things.

Far Mosque stage—photo by Reiley Rae

Walking up the majestic stone staircases into the Portland Art Museum, Inspire Truth featured three separate floors and stage areas of live music, each with its own unique personality. Custom lighting illuminated pinks, purples and blues in every hallway, nook and cranny of the New Year’s Eve event. Psychedelic geometric patterns and imagery danced across the stages’ art installations and walls. Seas of people dressed to impress and moving together on the dancefloor flowed into one resounding chorus of positivity and celebration of life.

Simultaneous musical performances by The Polish Ambassador and Desert Dwellers facilitated the midnight transition into the New Year. Desert Dwellers threw down an intense set of intricately blended shamanic melodies mixed with flowing bass lines, and were backed by black-and-white tribal visionary art projected behind them onstage. Meanwhile upstairs, The Polish Ambassador conducted a completely different style of dance party, with funky-futuristic grooves as otherworldly morphing projections blasted across a large screen above him created by visionary artist Android Jones, and was flanked by artists Amanda Sage and Eric Nez onstage left and right creating live paintings inspired by the pulsing, charismatic energy of the music and the audience.

The Polish Ambassador—photo by Reiley Rae

Other musical highlights included Bohemian Dub Orchestra, Emancipator, and a powerfully moving set by one of The Polish Ambassador’s side projects, Wildlight. Ayla Nereo of Wildlight brought their set, and the event as a whole, to a close by asking all of the audience members to reach down and touch the ground, feeling the energy transfer between mother earth, saying a prayer for the planet, for families and loved ones, and extending that prayer out to all living beings and into the universe.

Inspire Truth was a one-of-a-kind experience, intensifying the light that burns brightly inside of each individual who attended, and with each soul shining bright, that spirit and energy will flow outward into tomorrow and the future.